[CQ-Contest] SSB Pileup Contest?

[John Owens NN6U]

Stan,

I'm glad to see your perspective on FTx contests. Every time I see someone saying it's like watching paint dry, or that their computer makes all the contacts while they go get a beer, it tells me that they aren't mentally engaged in dealing with QSOs in progress like you describe. For me, a busy FT8 contest is like a video game where every 30 seconds are spent as 29.2 seconds of planning and 800ms of "quick - which of the 3 possible things you considered are you going to do now". For FT4, halve that. It's also why I dislike DigiRite (WriteLog's FTx automated QSO maker) as much as I dislike my Tesla's "full self-driving (but not really)" feature.

There is an FT4 contest every week - see https://www.ncccsprint.com/ft4ns.html - although it's not really popular enough to call it a "pileup contest", but maybe if enough people give it a try it could be.

    73,
    -John NN6U
 
-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest <cq-contest-bounces+john=nn6u.net at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Stan Zawrotny
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 09:28
To: Alan Higbie <alan.higbie at gmail.com>
Cc: CQ Contest <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] SSB Pileup Contest?

You just missed the NAQP SSB contest last week. The next major SSB pileup contest will be the CQ Worldwide DX Contest, October 26-27. The ARRL Sweepstakes, SSB, is November 15-17.

You shouldn't dismiss FT8/FT4 contests. During the World Wide Digi DX Contest August 30-31, there will be some good pileups for ops who actually know how to do FT8/FT4. It's challenging when there are three active QSOs at the same time. How do you interleave the responses without losing someone? It's simple with CW and SSB—you take them one at a time, expecting the others to wait. With FTn, you might have multiple QSOs actually active at the same time. If you don't reply to each one quickly, they move on to someone else. There is no time for sleeping if you are a skilled op. Ops who only do S&P might get sleepy trying to break pileups.

Contest ebulliently,
__________
Stan, K4SBZ





On Wed, Aug 20, 2025 at 11:37 AM Alan Higbie <alan.higbie at gmail.com> wrote:

> Our club has been asked by convention organizers to arrange pileup 
> contests for attendees.
>
> With stalwart assistance from Chuck, NO5W, we have the the CW pileup 
> contest covered.
>
> *But still need to get some leads for an SSB pileup contest.  * 
> *Please share anything you might know about this.*
>
> (We probably couldn’t do an FT8 pileup contest . . . because of the 
> necessary sleeping arrangements) /s
>
> 73, Alan K0AV
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